A Forrester Total Economic Impact™
Study Commissioned By Western Digital
July 2018
The Total Economic Impact™ Of Western Digital IntelliFlash™
Cost Savings And Business Benefits Enabled By Enterprise Flash Storage
Table Of Contents Executive Summary 1
Key Findings 1
TEI Framework And Methodology 3
The Enterprise Flash Storage Customer Journey 4
Interviewed Organizations 4
Key Challenges 4
Key Results 5
Analysis Of Benefits 6
Avoided Cost Of Lost Productivity By Business Users 6
Avoided Cost Of Disk-Based Storage System 7
Reduced Storage Needs Due To Deduplication 8
Reduced Cost Of Power And Cooling In Data Center 8
Unquantified Benefits 9
Flexibility 9
Analysis Of Costs 10
Cost Of The IntelliFlash Solution 10
Cost To Implement And Configure Flash Storage 11
Financial Summary 12
IntelliFlash Enterprise Flash Storage: Overview 13
One Flash Platform, Any Workload 13
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact 14
Project Director:
Dean Davison
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1 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Executive Summary
Western Digital provides a flash storage solution that integrates with
existing storage infrastructure. Flash storage reduces storage latency and
enables faster access to large files, and improved performance for large
databases and real time analytics workloads.
Western Digital commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct a Total
Economic Impact™ (TEI) study and examine the potential return on
investment (ROI) enterprises may realize by deploying IntelliFlash
Enterprise Flash Storage. The purpose of this study is to provide readers
with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of IntelliFlash
on their organizations.
To better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this
investment, Forrester interviewed two customers with several years of
experience using IntelliFlash.
Prior to using IntelliFlash, the interviewed customers had aging and
expensive storage systems and significant pressure from business units to
improve slow response times, which impeded the productivity and efficacy
of working with customers. One organization reported large files that took
15 to 20 minutes to open. Another organization’s system required 3 to 5
minutes for doctors and nurses to pull up a patient’s medical history while
working with those patients.
After deploying IntelliFlash, the organizations removed nearly all storage
latency for end users, improved the overall performance of virtual desktop
environments, and allowed end-users to focus on their jobs rather than
agonize over technology deficiencies. Using IntelliFlash provided a
superior management interface, enabled much faster data access,
drastically lower storage response times and reduced the overall cost of
storage with features such as deduplication and greater density in the data
center.
Key Findings
Quantified benefits. A composite organization, modeled after the
interviewed organizations for this study, experienced the following risk-
adjusted present value (PV) quantified benefits over 3 years:
› Avoided cost of lost productivity by business users valued at $1.2
million. On average, 150 end users experienced 30 minutes of delay
waiting for data every day. By eliminating this latency, the business
increased productivity equivalent to 8.7 employees on an annual basis.
› Avoided cost of disk-based storage system of $773,749. The
organization’s previous storage system was at its end of life and needed
to be replaced. The company avoided the cost of replacing another disk-
based system.
› Reduced storage needs due to deduplication valued at $178,184.
Deduplication capabilities within IntelliFlash provided additional savings.
The organization already experienced data growth that nearly doubled
storage annually. Deduplication enabled the customer to store more data
in the existing storage. It could store or accommodate 35% more than
previously without deduplication.
Benefits And Costs
Improved business productivity:
$1,195,368
Reduced costs for the IT organization:
$971,367
Total cost of flash storage:
$575,640
2 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
› Reduced cost of power and cooling in data center valued at
$35,256. The interviewed executives told Forrester that IntelliFlash
reduced the physical footprint and power and cooling costs by one-third
or 33%.
Unquantified benefits. The interviewed organizations experienced the
following benefits, which are not quantified for this study:
› Eliminated frustration by practitioners who previously waited for
data. While the financial model includes metrics related to productivity,
executives at each organization shared a significant emotional response
to providing faster data. Frustration, agitation, and irritation among end
users vanished, and customer-facing employees could focus on work.
Costs. The composite organization, based on the two interviewed
organizations, experienced the following risk-adjusted PV costs:
› Cost of IntelliFlash storage of $565,665 over three years. The
organization began with 120 terabytes (TBs) and grew to 400 TBs by the
end of three years. During the same time period, the cost per TB of flash
storage declined from $2,000 per year to $1,500 per year.
› Cost to implement and configure flash storage of $9,975. While both
companies considered the implementation effort to be nominal, it did
require 25% of the time of two employees for three months to design,
configure, and implement IntelliFlash into their enterprises.
Forrester’s interviews with two existing customers and subsequent
financial analysis found that an organization based on these interviewed
organizations experienced benefits of $2.2 million over three years versus
costs of $575,640, adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $1.6 million
and an ROI of 276%.
Total benefits PV, $2.2M
Total costs PV, $576K
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Financial Summary
Payback:<3 months
$1.2M
$773.7K
$178.2K
$19.4K
Avoided cost oflost productivity
by businessusers
Avoided cost ofdisk-based
storage system
Reduced storageneeds due todeduplication
Reduced cost ofpower and
cooling in datacenter
Benefits (Three-Year)
ROI 276%
Benefits PV $2.2 million
NPV $1.6 million
Payback <3 months
3 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
TEI Framework And Methodology
From the information provided in the interview, Forrester has constructed a
Total Economic Impact™ (TEI) framework for those organizations
considering implementing Western Digital’s IntelliFlash arrays.
The objective of the framework is to identify the cost, benefit, flexibility, and
risk factors that affect the investment decision. Forrester took a multistep
approach to evaluate the impact that IntelliFlash Storage can have on an
organization:
DUE DILIGENCE Interviewed Western Digital’s stakeholders and Forrester analysts to gather data relative to IntelliFlash.
CUSTOMER INTERVIEWS Interviewed two organizations using Enterprise Flash Storage to obtain data with respect to costs, benefits, and risks.
FINANCIAL MODEL FRAMEWORK Constructed a financial model representative of the interviews using the TEI methodology and risk-adjusted the financial model based on issues and concerns of the interviewed organization.
CASE STUDY Employed four fundamental elements of TEI in modeling Western Digital’s IntelliFlash impact: benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. Given the increasing sophistication that enterprises have regarding ROI analyses related to IT investments, Forrester’s TEI methodology serves to provide a complete picture of the total economic impact of purchase decisions. Please see Appendix A for additional information on the TEI methodology.
The TEI methodology
helps companies
demonstrate, justify,
and realize the
tangible value of IT
initiatives to both
senior management
and other key
business
stakeholders.
DISCLOSURES
Readers should be aware of the following:
This study is commissioned by Western Digital and delivered by Forrester
Consulting. It is not meant to be used as a competitive analysis.
Forrester makes no assumptions as to the potential ROI that other
organizations will receive. Forrester strongly advises that readers use their own
estimates within the framework provided in the report to determine the
appropriateness of an investment in Western Digital’s IntelliFlash Enterprise
Flash Storage.
Western Digital reviewed and provided feedback to Forrester, but Forrester
maintains editorial control over the study and its findings and does not accept
changes to the study that contradict Forrester’s findings or obscure the
meaning of the study.
Western Digital provided the customer names for the interviews but did not
participate in the interviews.
4 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
The Enterprise Flash Storage Customer
Journey
BEFORE AND AFTER THE ENTERPRISE FLASH STORAGE INVESTMENT
Interviewed Organizations
For this study, Forrester interviewed two of Western Digital’s IntelliFlash
customers:
› A real estate organization that designs and manages the mechanical,
electrical, and plumbing systems for large, commercial buildings. Many
of its users work with extremely large computer-aided design (CAD)
files, which took extensive amounts of time to load. This created a
burden on employees who are paid hourly.
› A healthcare organization that includes hospitals, clinics, and related
medical facilities. Medical records were delivered to doctors and
nurses using a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) system. Doctors
complained that they often waited several minutes for information to
load. The financial model is primarily based on the experience of this
IntelliFlash customer.
Key Challenges
The healthcare organization faced challenges with its existing storage
system. The organization:
› Required a storage system that would support 100% uptime. The
executives told Forrester: “We are a hospital and need 7x24x365
availability. When the system goes down, it impacts the healthcare and
potentially even the life of hospital patients.”
› Improved response time in virtual desktop environment. The
executive said: “Our virtual desktop interface environment was
becoming very slow. Doctors would sometimes have to wait for 3 to 5
minutes for information to come up on the computer just so that they
could treat patients.”
› Reached end of life for its previous storage architecture. “Our
current storage system was obsolete and aging out. We needed to
upgrade anyway and chose to skip over other disk-based systems and
go directly to a flash environment.”
The real estate organization:
› Suffered significant latency for users to open large files for CAD.
“Our designers are governed by union rules, and we have to monitor
their work hours carefully. Most of the large CAD files that they were
working on would take 15 to 20 minutes to open in the morning. They
used to tell us that they would open the files and then go get their
coffee because they had to wait so long.”
“We are a healthcare
organization, including a
hospital, and need 7x24x365
availability. When the system
goes down, it impacts the
healthcare and potentially
even the life of hospital
patients.”
Systems analyst, healthcare
provider
5 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Key Results
The interviews revealed several key results from the IntelliFlash
investment. Organizations:
› Realized significant capacity savings from deduplication. “We
realized a deduplication level of 51%, which had a significant impact on
our capacity requirements. I think that we achieved that level because
we had about 600 VDI devices that have a lot of files in common,
which really compounds the efficacy of deduplication.”
› Leveraged a hybrid storage environment. “At first, we used
IntelliFlash to manage a hybrid environment that included flash and
disk technologies. Using flash for caching makes a huge difference for
frequently used data and the rest of the less frequently used data sits
on spindles. It made a big difference to our environment immediately
while we made other changes to our systems.”
› Maintained the same number of storage admins even with
significant growth in capacity. “We have the same number of people
managing 400 TBs of storage today that we had maintaining our 20 TB
disk-based system five years ago. We realize that all storage vendors
have improved their interfaces and management tools, so we might
have gotten a similar benefit from any storage provider, but we love the
point-and-click capabilities of IntelliFlash.”
› Enjoyed great support from Western Digital. “Western Digital has a
lot of experienced employees who have worked with other technology
firms. Whenever we encounter a problem, they remain engaged and
persistent until the problem is resolved, even if that means calling up
and working with other technology firms. They have never exhibited
the finger-pointing blame game that is common in support by
technology vendors.”
› Simplified the design of failover systems for disaster recovery.
“We were previously using a product that had a combined hardware
and software structure, which required two different storage arrays
[one for production and one for DR site], and we wrote to them
simultaneously. Latency was horrible, so we removed that system and
relied more heavily on IntelliFlash for backup and disaster recovery.”
› Reduced the data center space required for the same capacity
compared to disk by one-third. “We only had about 100 TBs [when
we started], so the data center space required wasn’t tremendous, but
we did reduce the space required by one-third when implementing
IntelliFlash.”
“Western Digital has a lot of
experienced employees who
have worked with other
technology firms. Whenever
we encounter a problem, they
remain engaged and
persistent until the problem is
resolved, even if that means
calling up and working with
other technology firms. They
have never exhibited the
finger-pointing blame game
that is common in support by
technology vendors.”
Storage administrator, healthcare
industry
6 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
The table above shows the total of all benefits across the areas listed below, as well as present values (PVs) discounted at 10%. Over three years, the interviewed organization expects risk-adjusted total benefits to be a PV of more than $2.2 million.
Avoided cost of lost productivity by business
users: 55% of total benefits
Analysis Of Benefits
QUANTIFIED BENEFIT DATA
Avoided Cost Of Lost Productivity By Business
Users
The real estate company had a group of business users with a job that
used very large CAD files. Opening the large files took significant time.
For example, in the morning, employees said that they would open a file
and then go get coffee because it took at least 15 to 20 minutes for the
file to open.
The healthcare organization had customer-facing delays waiting for data
as well. Doctors and nurses waited for customer data during patient
consultations. On average, doctors reported waiting 3 to 5 minutes for
patient data to appear on the screen.
In Forrester’s financial model, 150 employees saved 30 minutes every
day. This equates to 8.7 full-time employees on an annual basis. At an
average burdened salary of $65,000 per year, the total annual savings
was $565,500.
The likelihood of this benefit being applicable to readers depends on
specific circumstances that cause slower data to impede business
operations. To account for this risk, Forrester adjusted this benefit
downward by 15%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of
$1.2 million.
Total Benefits
REF. BENEFIT YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 TOTAL PRESENT
VALUE
Atr Avoided cost of lost productivity by business users
$480,675 $480,675 $480,675 $1,442,025 $1,195,368
Btr Avoided cost of disk-based storage system
$306,000 $238,000 $397,800 $941,800 $773,749
Ctr Reduced storage needs due to deduplication
$75,600 $55,125 $85,050 $215,775 $178,184
Dtr Reduced cost of power and cooling in data center
$7,200 $13,140 $23,760 $44,100 $35,256
Total benefits (risk-adjusted) $869,475 $786,940 $987,285 $2,643,700 $2,182,557
55%three-year benefit PV
$1.2 million
7 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Avoided cost of disk-based storage system: 35% of total benefits
Avoided Cost Of Disk-Based Storage System
The healthcare organization was using an expensive storage system
riddled with performance problems. This combination was confusing and
frustrating for executives across business and IT operations.
Although the organization knew that it needed to replace the aging
system, which had reached the end of its life, storage managers debated
upgrading to a newer, disk-based system vs. flash storage. In the end,
the company adopted IntelliFlash because it offered management tools
to enable an effective hybrid architecture. The organization then
migrated to an all-flash design over about two years.
The company avoided not only the cost of its obsolete system, which had
a cost of $22,000 per TB per year, but also paid less than a new disk-
based system, which would have started at an annualized price of
$3,000 per TB per year. Using the lower number of $3,000 per TB per
year, the PV savings over three years totaled $1.7 million.
The degree to which this benefit is relevant to readers will vary with the
current storage architecture. To account for this risk, Forrester adjusted
this benefit downward by 15%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total
PV of $773,749.
Avoided Cost Of Lost Productivity By Business Users: Calculation Table
REF. METRIC CALC. YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
A1 Business employees impacted by slow data 150 150 150
A2 Average minutes of delay per day 30 30 30
A3 Equivalent full-time employees (rounded)
A1*(A2 /60 minutes *240 days)
/2,080 hours
8.7 8.7 8.7
A4 Average burdened salary $65,000 $65,000 $65,000
At Avoided cost of lost productivity by business users
A3*A4 $565,500 $565,500 $565,500
Risk adjustment ↓15%
Atr Avoided cost of lost productivity by business users (risk-adjusted)
$480,675 $480,675 $480,675
Avoided Cost Of Disk-Based Storage System: Calculation Table
REF. METRIC CALC. YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
B1 Storage capacity required (TBs)
120 220 400
B2 Incremental storage purchased yearly B1CY-B1PY 120 100 180
B3 Cost per terabyte
$3,000 $2,800 $2,600
Bt Avoided cost of disk-based storage system B2*B3 $360,000 $280,000 $468,000
Risk adjustment ↓15%
Btr Avoided cost of disk-based storage system (risk-adjusted)
$306,000 $238,000 $397,800
36%three-year benefit PV
$773,749
8 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Reduced storage needs due to deduplication: 8% of total benefits
Implementation risk is the risk that a proposed investment may deviate from the original or expected requirements, resulting in higher costs than anticipated. The greater the uncertainty, the wider the potential range of outcomes for cost estimates.
Reduced Storage Needs Due To Deduplication
The deduplication capabilities built into IntelliFlash provided savings for
both organizations that Forrester interviewed. Deduplication enabled:
› A capacity reduction of 23% for the real estate firm.
› A capacity reduction of 51% for the healthcare organization.
The healthcare organization realized a higher level of deduplication, in
the opinion of its executives, because it operated with hundreds of virtual
desktops that had redundant file structures, which enhanced the impact
of deduplication.
In the financial model, Forrester used a midpoint between these two
companies and assumed a 35% level of deduplication, which resulted in
an avoided need to purchase a total of 140 TBs over 3 years and
savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The level of deduplication that readers should expect to realize will vary
based on the operating environment and file structure. To account for
this uncertainty, Forrester adjusted this benefit downward by 10%,
yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of $178,184.
Reduced Cost Of Power And Cooling In Data
Center
In addition to lower costs and improved speed, IntelliFlash required less
capacity per TB in the data center. Measuring the actual footprint was
challenging in a switch from one technology to another while storage
requirements doubled annually.
The executives that Forrester interviewed at both organizations
estimated that the physical space required along with the power and
cooling cost was approximately 33% lower using IntelliFlash.
As different organizations will experience varying levels of reduction due
to their previous storage systems, Forrester adjusted this benefit
downward by 10%, yielding a three-year risk-adjusted total PV of
$35,256.
Reduced Storage Needs Due To Deduplication: Calculation Table
REF. METRIC CALC. YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
C1 Storage capacity required (TBs) 120 220 400
C2 Incremental storage purchased yearly B1CY-B1PY 120 100 180
C3 Deduplication level realized 35% 35% 35%
C4 Avoided capacity that would otherwise be required (TBs)
(C2*C3) 42 35 63
C5 Average cost per terabyte $2,000 $1,750 $1,500
Ct Reduced storage needs due to deduplication C4*C5 $84,000 $61,250 $94,500
Risk adjustment ↓10%
Ctr Reduced storage needs due to deduplication (risk-adjusted)
$75,600 $55,125 $85,050
8%
three-year benefit PV
$178,184
9 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Impact risk is the risk that the business or technology needs of the organization may not be met by the investment, resulting in lower overall total benefits. The greater the uncertainty, the wider the potential range of outcomes for benefit estimates.
Flexibility, as defined by TEI, represents an investment in additional capacity or capability that could be turned into business benefit for a future additional investment. This provides an organization with the "right" or the ability to engage in future initiatives but not the obligation to do so.
Unquantified Benefits
In addition to the benefits outlined above, the interviewed executives
shared other benefits that did not have specific financial implications.
Specifically, the companies benefited from:
› The eliminated frustration of their practitioners and designers
who previously waited for data and files. “Doctors are experts in
treating patients and become highly frustrated when the basic tools
that they have to use don’t work right. We had many, many complaints
from doctors that the poor response times were interfering with their
ability to care for patients.”
Flexibility
The value of flexibility is clearly unique to each customer, and the
measure of its value varies from organization to organization. There are
multiple scenarios in which a customer might choose to implement
Enterprise Flash Storage and later realize additional uses and business
opportunities, including:
› Maintaining the same number of storage admins even with
significant growth in capacity. “We have the same number of people
managing 400 TBs of storage today that we had maintaining our 20 TB
disk-based system five years ago.”
› Enjoying great support from Western Digital. “Whenever we
encounter a problem, they remain engaged and persistent until the
problem is resolved, even if that means calling up and working with
other technology firms.”
› Simplifying the design of failover systems for disaster recovery.
“We were previously using a product that had a combined hardware
and software structure, which required two different storage arrays,
and we wrote to them simultaneously.” Using flash arrays shifted the
focus to data and capacity rather than duplicating the hardware and
writing simultaneously.
Flexibility would also be quantified when evaluated as part of a specific
project (described in more detail in Appendix A).
Reduced Cost Of Power And Cooling In Data Center: Calculation Table
REF. METRIC CALC. YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
D1 Storage capacity required (TBs) 120 220 400
D2 Data center capacity saved (TBs) D1*33% 40 73 132
D3 Reduced power and cooling cost (per TB per year)
$200 $200 $200
Dt Reduced cost of power and cooling in data center
D2*D3 $8,000 $14,600 $26,400
Risk adjustment ↓10%
Dtr Reduced cost of power and cooling in data center (risk-adjusted)
$7,200 $13,140 $23,760
10 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
The table above shows the total of all costs across the areas listed below, as well as present values (PVs) discounted at 10%. Over three years, the interviewed organization expects risk-adjusted total costs to be a PV of $575,640.
Analysis Of Costs
QUANTIFIED COST DATA
Cost Of The IntelliFlash Solution
The composite organization launched its flash storage with 120 TBs and
experienced growth that nearly doubled the level of capacity to 220 TBs
and 400 TBs in Year 2 and Year 3, respectively.
Over the same three years, the cost per TB of storage also decreased —
in part, due to the decrease in industrywide prices, but also because the
increased volume of storage reduced the average cost per TB.
Forrester did not risk-adjust this cost, resulting in a three-year risk-
adjusted total PV of $575,640.
Total Costs
REF. COST INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 TOTAL PRESENT
VALUE
Etr Cost of the IntelliFlash solution
$0 $240,000 $175,000 $270,000 $685,000 $565,665
Ftr Cost to implement and configure flash storage
$9,975 $0 $0 $0 $9,975 $9,975
Total costs (risk-adjusted) $9,975 $240,000 $175,000 $270,000 $694,975 $575,640
Cost Of The IntelliFlash Solution: Calculation Table
REF. METRIC CALC. INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
E1 Flash storage purchased (TBs) 120 100 180
E2 Cost per terabyte $2,000 $1,750 $1,500
Et Cost of the IntelliFlash solution E1*E2 $240,000 $175,000 $270,000
Risk adjustment
Etr Cost of the IntelliFlash solution (risk-adjusted)
$240,000 $175,000 $270,000
11 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Cost To Implement And Configure Flash Storage
In addition to the cost of storage from Western Digital, the organization
incurred a nominal expense to design, architect, and configure the flash
storage system.
Two employees worked on the project for three months for about 25% of
their time, resulting in an annualized effort of 0.1 full-time equivalents
(FTEs). Using a burdened salary of $95,000, the cost was $9,500.
Some organizations will require differing amounts of effort. To account
for this risk, Forrester adjusted this cost upward by 5%, yielding a three-
year risk-adjusted total PV of $9,975.
Cost To Implement And Configure Flash Storage: Calculation Table
REF. METRIC CALC. INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3
F1 Two employees working for three months for 25% of their time (rounded)
2 employees *(3 months /12 months)
*25%
0.1
F2 Average burdened salary $95,000
Ft Cost to implement and configure flash storage
E2*E3 $9,500
Risk adjustment 5%
Ftr Cost to implement and configure flash storage (risk-adjusted)
$9,975
12 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
The financial results calculated in the Benefits and Costs sections can be used to determine the ROI, NPV, and payback period for the interviewed organization’s investment. Forrester assumes a yearly discount rate of 10% for this analysis.
Financial Summary
CONSOLIDATED THREE-YEAR RISK-ADJUSTED METRICS
Cash Flow Chart (Risk-Adjusted)
-$0.5 M
$0.5 M
$1.0 M
$1.5 M
$2.0 M
$2.5 M
Initial Year 1 Year 2 Year 3
Cashflows
Total costs
Total benefits
Cumulative net benefits
These risk-adjusted ROI,
NPV, and payback period
values are determined by
applying risk-adjustment
factors to the unadjusted
results in each Benefit and
Cost section.
Cash Flow Table (Risk-Adjusted)
INITIAL YEAR 1 YEAR 2 YEAR 3 TOTAL PRESENT
VALUE
Total costs ($9,975) ($240,000) ($175,000) ($270,000) ($694,975) ($575,640)
Total benefits $0 $869,475 $779,740 $974,145 $2,623,360 $2,166,735
Net benefits ($9,975) $629,475 $604,740 $704,145 $1,928,385 $1,591,095
ROI 276%
Payback period <3 months
13 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
IntelliFlash Enterprise Flash Storage: Overview
The following information is provided by Western Digital. Forrester has not validated any claims and does not
endorse Western Digital or its offerings.
Western Digital offers a comprehensive portfolio of IntelliFlash arrays, so you can choose a flash storage solution
that’s right for you. Western Digital’s flash arrays seamlessly support different storage media (hard disks, dense
flash, high-performance flash) under a single storage operating environment. They’re designed to accelerate a
wide variety of enterprise applications — from smaller workloads to mission-critical deployments. You also get
high-performance data reduction (inline deduplication, compression, zero block elimination) and data protection
(snapshots, clones, replication) features, all while accelerating performance across flash and disk.
Dial up or down the amount of flash storage to meet the specific performance needs of your applications. NVMe,
all-flash, and hybrid flash array configurations give you:
› A single operating system (OS).
› The same feature set.
› An identical user experience.
Users get the high performance of flash with the economics of disk storage. Fully redundant with active/active
controllers, these arrays are built for enterprise data centers with resilience, data availability, and data protection
in mind.
One Flash Platform, Any Workload Every business has unique data storage needs for performance, capacity, and data protection. To meet these
needs, many businesses run multiple storage environments. With IntelliFlash, you don’t have to. You don’t need
to choose between an NVMe, all-flash, or hybrid flash environment either. Run different types of storage in one
environment and get the benefits of multiple storage environments with none of the drawbacks.
Accelerate All Your Enterprise Applications IntelliFlash arrays deliver breakthrough performance with mission-critical availability for a wide range of
enterprise applications. Whether you want to virtualize business-critical applications, consolidate more virtual
machines per server, or accelerate a database application, you can do so with ease by deploying IntelliFlash
arrays. Western Digital’s storage arrays are certified to work with all leading enterprise applications, operating
systems, and hypervisors.
14 | The Total Economic Of Western Digital IntelliFlash
Appendix A: Total Economic Impact
Total Economic Impact is a methodology developed by Forrester
Research that enhances a company’s technology decision-making
processes and assists vendors in communicating the value proposition
of their products and services to clients. The TEI methodology helps
companies demonstrate, justify, and realize the tangible value of IT
initiatives to both senior management and other key business
stakeholders.
Total Economic Impact Approach
Benefits represent the value delivered to the business by the
product. The TEI methodology places equal weight on the
measure of benefits and the measure of costs, allowing for a
full examination of the effect of the technology on the entire
organization.
Costs consider all expenses necessary to deliver the
proposed value, or benefits, of the product. The cost category
within TEI captures incremental costs over the existing
environment for ongoing costs associated with the solution.
Flexibility represents the strategic value that can be
obtained for some future additional investment building on
top of the initial investment already made. Having the ability
to capture that benefit has a PV that can be estimated.
Risks measure the uncertainty of benefit and cost estimates
given: 1) the likelihood that estimates will meet original
projections and 2) the likelihood that estimates will be
tracked over time. TEI risk factors are based on “triangular
distribution.”
The initial investment column contains costs incurred at “time 0” or at the
beginning of Year 1 that are not discounted. All other cash flows are discounted
using the discount rate at the end of the year. PV calculations are calculated for
each total cost and benefit estimate. NPV calculations in the summary tables are
the sum of the initial investment and the discounted cash flows in each year.
Sums and present value calculations of the Total Benefits, Total Costs, and
Cash Flow tables may not exactly add up, as some rounding may occur.
Present value (PV)
The present or current value of (discounted) cost and benefit estimates given at an interest rate (the discount rate). The PV of costs and benefits feed into the total NPV of cash flows.
Net present value (NPV)
The present or current value of (discounted) future net cash flows given an interest rate (the discount rate). A positive project NPV normally indicates that the investment should be made, unless other projects have higher NPVs.
Return on investment (ROI)
A project’s expected return in percentage terms. ROI is calculated by dividing net benefits (benefits less costs) by costs.
Discount rate
The interest rate used in cash flow analysis to take into account the time value of money. Organizations typically use discount rates between 8% and 16%.
Payback period
The breakeven point for an investment. This is the point in time at which net benefits (benefits minus costs) equal initial investment or cost.